Track 4 of the album Porch Light Left On · 2016
Keep Your Window Open, Whoever You Are
“A late summer street gone quiet, with the lamps coming on one by one. I imagined singing it up to an open window.”
acoustic · dreamy folk · evening folk · 4:40
Lyrics
Late summer evening, the air is thick with thyme The street has gone to quiet, and the lamps come on in time There's a window on the corner where a curtain lifts and falls And I have never seen the face behind those walls I hear you play the cello when the dishes have been dried One slow, unfinished phrase that never quite arrives I water my geraniums and let the music in It's the nearest thing to company I've known this year, and thin Keep your window open, whoever you are Let the long notes travel as far as they can go I'm listening from the doorstep, I'm not a bit afraid There is comfort in a stranger's song, tender and low Keep your window open, whoever you are Let the long notes travel, let them be heard I'll never know your name, but I will know your tune And the sound is every kindness, without a single word Tonight you found the ending, the phrase came home at last The street was very still, as the final note went past I put my hands together in the dusk, alone And hoped the sound would find you, in a house I have not known Keep your window open, whoever you are Let the long notes travel as far as they can go I'm listening from the doorstep, I'm not a bit afraid There is comfort in a stranger's song, tender and low Keep your window open, whoever you are Let the long notes travel, let them be heard I'll never know your name, but I will know your tune And the sound is every kindness, without a single word The evening folds its wings now The first star finds the sill Somewhere a bow is resting And the whole street holds still Keep your window open Whoever you are Whoever you are